Mauritius, Bihar to jointly host `Bhojpuri Mahotsav`

Patna: Mauritius and Bihar which share historical bonds have decided to organise `Bhojpuri festival` every year to keep the language alive.

The festival would be organised jointly by government of Mauritius and Bihar Tourism department and both Mauritius Prime Minister Rajkeshwar Prayag and state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have consented to holding the festival, state Tourism Minister Sunil Kumar Pintu told reporters here.

Prayag would be visiting Patna in the first week of January on Kumar`s request, he said.
Pintu, who visited the south east Asian country recently to attend a tourism meet, said Bhojpuri is still spoken by the elder generation in Mauritius but the younger people hardly speak in the language.

The people there had requested him to open a Mauritius information centre at Patna where they could get the details of their forefathers and Kumar had given his consent for it, he said.

About 70 per cent of the population of Mauritius is of Indian origin and almost half of them hailed from Bihar.

Pintu, who had also visited England recently in connection with a tourism festival, said British Royal army officials signed an agreement with Bihar tourism department as part of which 4000 of its officials with their families would visit Bodh Gaya in January.